Carmel Valley Rec. Center pool temporarily closed due to supply chain shortage of CO2

The pool at the Carmel Valley Recreation Center is one of four pools citywide that has been temporarily closed due to a nationwide shortage of carbon dioxide. The Carmel Valley pool, along with pools in City Heights, Kearny Mesa and Encanto closed on Monday, Aug. 22 until further notice.

Carbon dioxide is used to help balance and maintain the pH levels in the pool water. According to the city, maintenance crews will be continually applying muriatic acid as a CO2 replacement to the pools that will remain open, but the procedure requires continual monitoring and, currently, staffing levels are too low to perform the necessary monitoring for all 13 city pools.

According to the city, the evaluation of which pools would be closed included contractual obligations with San Diego Unified School District and the San Diego Community College District, sites scheduled for routine maintenance or repairs, and geographic location in terms of staff being able to move back and forth between pool sites.

The annual fall and winter maintenance for the closed pools will be conducted during the closures. It is not known when the pool will reopen, the city will continue to look for alternate sources of CO2 to reopen the pools as soon as possible.

For more information about the city’s municipal pools system and available aquatics programs, visit sandiego.gov/pools